1. Field
The disclosure relates generally to managing documents and more specifically to an improved data processing system for managing documents. Even more specifically, the disclosure relates to a method, computer program product, and apparatus for managing a set of colors in a document.
2. Description of the Related Art
Documents are commonly printed on paper by a printer. The printer is frequently controlled by a data processing system. The data processing system transmits data to the printer that contains information about the images and colors for printing a document. Documents may be printed in a single color or multiple colors. A single color is black, for example. An example of a document containing multiple colors may contain a red image and a green image.
Documents are frequently printed in multiple colors in order to assist a reader in interpreting the document. For example, a line chart that indicates a series of data for each entity in a group may present a line on the chart for each of the entities. One example of a line chart is the number of sales over a period of time for a number of different items at a store. Data for each of the items are presented for the same period of time. Such a presentation allows a reader to compare the sales performance for the different items over the period of time.
When printing the line chart on paper, a different color may be used for each line on the line chart. Different colors may be used so the reader is able to visually understand the different lines on the chart. In the event that a single color is used in some documents, the reader may become confused or unable to interpret the information presented.
Printers frequently use a set of colored inks to generate lines, images, text, and other information on printed documents. The printer may only have a small number of colored inks. For example, the printer may contain a cyan ink, a magenta ink, a yellow ink, and a black ink. In the event the printer receives a document containing an area to be printed in cyan, the cyan ink is used to print the area.
A printer with a set of colored inks may also print colors that are not among the set of colored inks by combining the colored inks in different quantities. For example, a printer may print an olive green area by mixing about 37 percent cyan, 0 percent magenta, 54 percent yellow, and 63 percent black. In these illustrative examples, each percentage for a colored ink represents the amount of the colored ink used in the combination relative to the amount of colored ink that may be used in the area being printed. For example, about 100 percent cyan represents that the most cyan colored ink that may be printed in the area is being used. Thus, each percentage represents the percentage of the color to be used. Of course, many other colors may be produced using the colored inks.